In the past year, I’ve been to the AT&T Center now seven times. Four of them they’ve ripped apart the Thunder, two of them, it was the Heat. Between those two teams, I’ve seen this exact game happen six times. The Spurs shred the Thunder’s defense, starting by getting to the rim at will, then expand out to hit seemingly every shot they take.

The four Thunder games have followed the same trajectory. A decent-ish first quarter that revealed obvious defensive issues, then a second quarter Spurs spurt, and then a full-on third quarter onslaught.

This wasn’t a butt-kicking. This was a curb-stomping. This was Rick Grimes biting that dudes throat out. This was humiliation unlike the Thunder have really ever experienced.

“They just played harder than us,” Russell Westbrook said. “We just weren’t ready to play. Simple as that.” Keep Reading…

Both the Spurs and the Thunder are playing on the second night of a back-to-back — the Thunder got another win (now 7 out of 8) against the Lakers, while the Spurs fell to the Mavericks in Dallas.

Last night was another important victory for OKC has it heads towards securing a postseason berth, especially playing in San Antonio tonight. The Spurs are starting to look like the Spurs, now that Tony Parker is looking more and more like himself. Keep Reading…

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider: “But people (not you!) need to stop citing Westbrook’s field goal percentage when appraising Westbrook’s value. This is 2015 — why are we evaluating players like it’s 1955? Yeah, his field goal percentage looks bad (42.7 percent) but considering he gets to the line so much (12.9 free-throw attempts per game in his last 10 games), his overall shot efficiency — 53.7 true-shooting percentage — is on par with Tony Parker (54.3) and Zach Randolph (53.7) and Ryan Anderson (53.5). No one’s whining that they’re unhealthy scorers and Westbrook is creating offense at almost twice the level they are. Coaches would kill for that blend of shot creation and efficiency.”

Ben Golliver of SI.com: “Even if the Thunder simply finish 6-6, that will require a 9-3 close from the Pelicans (who own the tiebreaker thanks to a 3-1 head-to-head record) and/or at least an 8-3 closing from the Suns. Those hypothetical records are way more achievable than the ones mentioned above, especially if some of the West’s locked-in playoff teams rest their stars over the last week or two of the season, but it would still be asking both New Orleans and Phoenix to generate a level of momentum that neither team has displayed since the All-Star break. Long story short: The Thunder, thanks largely to Westbrook, are flying higher than their competition and they now must simply hang on, rather than run uphill, for the final three weeks. Perhaps something positive can be taken from this nightmare season after all, at least until they look ahead to see which team they will face in the first round of the playoffs.” Keep Reading…

With about three minutes remaining, I looked up and saw Jeremy Lamb checking in and realized I should’ve had way more of this recap written than I did. The Thunder were cruising to a unremarkable win over the Lakers, and the thing keeping my interest most was looking up stats for no reason at all.

The summary of the 48 minutes: The Lakers closed to 72-65 midway through the third quarter, Russell Westbrook checked back in, the Thunder went on a 13-2 run that featured back-to-back Westbrook layups and a staredown of the Laker bench, and then it was all formality from there.

Enes Kanter double-doubled in the first quarter and finished with 25 points, 16 rebounds and four assists. Westbrook had his 15th double-double in his last 17 games with 27 points and 11 assists (but only two rebounds pfffft). Steven Adams had 16 and 10. Dion Waiters had 23 on 10-16 shooting and once again somehow resisted the siren song of the long step-back jumper to instead attack the rim.

Sunday’s win over the Miami Heat was the first sign of capable defense since Serge went down with injury. The perimeter defenders were sharp with rotations and communication, they fed off another deafening crowd and the bigs cleaned up around the rim all afternoon. It was a really encouraging win for this team going forward. Keep Reading…

When I watched Enes Kanter limp off the court in the Thunder’s win against the Celtics, my mind shifted to one of the greatest movies the 90s ever produced: Groundhog Day.

For those who refuse to enjoy the best of American cinema, Groundhog Day tells the story of a cocky, self-absorbed weatherman named Phil, who is assigned to Punxsatawney, Philadelphia for the town’s annual Groundhog Day festivities (that odd tradition where the length of winter is determined by a groundhog and his shadow). Due to a massive snowstorm, Phil and his crew are forced to stay in Punxsatawney for the night. Yet, when Phil wakes up the next morning, he slowly comes to realize he’s woken up yet again on Groundhog Day. Stuck in an unrelenting time-loop for years (and years and years), Phil tries many methods to escape his purgatory, but all to no avail. Fortunately, for Phil, a happy ending awaits. Instead of permanently wallowing in a puddle of self pity, Phil embraces his opportunity to utilize his acquired-knowledge about that fateful day to better himself, help others, and, most importantly, get the girl.

As to how this relates to the Thunder, a perpetual cycle of injuries is the Thunder’s own Groundhog Day. Just this week alone: Keep Reading…